‘Deliver on that promise’: New Dalton State College president outlines goals

Published 5:00 pm Friday, October 6, 2023

When John Fuchko III was chosen as interim president of Dalton State College after Margaret Venable’s retirement in May, he said his duty was to “pass the baton” to whomever the permanent successor might be.

On Wednesday that successor was chosen. But instead of “passing the baton,” Fuchko will keep it firmly in his hand as he was named Dalton State College president by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

“My family and I are really excited to be all in for the Dalton community and the college,” Fuchko said. “I’m very happy to see the level of support from the chancellor and the board for including me as a candidate.”

Although Fuchko only began his interim duties in June, he has already seen positive momentum for the college.

“The numbers can change ever so slightly, but we are now just shy of 4,900 students enrolled, which is an over 7% increase in headcount,” Fuchko said. “That is our largest increase since fall of 2009, and the first real increase since the fall of 2017. Our U.S. News rankings also improved to number 11 among best public colleges in the South. and of course there is the Wall Street Journal rankings from a few weeks ago where we are ranked number one in the entire country in the student experience category.”

Fuchko said he is proud to see the impact the college has made on students and alumni.

“It was kind of one of those ‘pinch yourself a couple of times and wake up’ moments because who would’ve thought we would break into that level? But there we are,” he said. “It’s just a reflection of the support from our community and the faculty and just the environment that they create. But it also tells you our students are pretty excited about being here and what they experience.”

In a news release on Wednesday, University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue stated Fuchko was an easy choice.

“Dalton State College was just named number one in the nation for student experience because of its commitment to helping students prosper, and it deserves a leader who will maintain that momentum as the college continues its climb to being the best in the nation,” Perdue said. “In John, we have just such a leader. He has spent decades in service to public higher education and has demonstrated success in working with faculty, staff and students to achieve great results.”

Initial goals

Fuchko said he has three goals for the immediate future of Dalton State.

“Since speaking with folks from on campus and off campus, I hear some pretty consistent messages,” Fuchko said. “The first one is student success. The expectation is that when students (are) coming to us, they expect that it is going to be a transformational change in their life, and I think we deliver on that. But, we can always do better. The work is never done in making sure that their academic experience and academic success produces the sort of change and growth that not only is the student expecting, but what we’re expecting as the college and what the community is expecting. A huge part is continuing to focus on what sort of employers and what kind of citizens we are producing for the workforce and community.”

Fuchko said continuing to grow and maintain community support is important as well.

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate in not just the philanthropic support that we receive from the community in terms of private dollars, but also the public dollars that have been invested in Dalton State. Just over the last 10 years, the state of Georgia has appropriated over 70 million in capital dollars for buildings and renovations to support this campus. That compares very favorably and really reflects a tremendous investment in the future of this campus.”

Fuchko said the third goal involves thinking about economic competitiveness and community development.

“If we at the college are really listening to what we’re hearing from future employers, whether that’s the private sector, our teachers, our school systems or the hospital, in a truly fundamental way and finding out what they really need while refocusing what we’re doing to help support and sustain that, then I think we’re going to be that much more successful in providing opportunities for our students,” he said. “That way we can help build the community and workforce by creating future engaged citizens.”

Potential partnerships

Fuchko said the college is already working on partnering with Georgia Northwestern Technical College and Georgia Highlands College in Rome.

“We’re exploring several different things, including a potential shared leadership development where we would kind of develop our own staff and faculty and see how they can better serve, but as a collective effort across the three institutions,” Fuchko said. “We are also looking at how we can better articulate the work that is done at either of those schools to fit into programs that we have here, and vice versa, eventually creating a pathway so that every student who is graduating from high school here in the area has a clear path. That path could be to us right away, or it could be to Georgia Highlands or (Georgia Northwestern) before winding up back here.”

Fuchko also mentioned the Georgia Match Direct College Admissions Initiative that was announced by Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday as a viable outlet for students as they graduate from high school.

A statement issued by Kemp said, “Beginning next week, over 120,000 high school seniors in Georgia will receive a personalized letter (from the governor) listing the public technical institutions, colleges and universities that are holding a spot for them in the fall 2024 semester, based on academic eligibility. The letters will provide information on next steps to claim a spot at a college on the student’s individual list.”

“We’re looking forward to being a part of that and helping deliver on that promise for those students,” Fuchko said.

‘Enrollment cliff’ challenges

While speaking to the Dalton Daily Citizen, Fuchko also addressed the upcoming “enrollment cliff” issue, which refers to a dramatic drop in the college-age population in 2025 due to the declining birth rates during the 2008 Recession.

“All demographics are local, so when I look at the growth in the state of Georgia, there are several growth corridors,” Fuchko said. “One of those is up I-75 north of Atlanta and another one of those is up I-575 and 515. We have campuses at the top of both: our main campus here in Dalton and our Ellijay campus which is right off the road from 515. I’m convinced that when you look forward 20 to 25 years, our biggest challenge is going to be managing growth, not managing decline.”

Fuchko said this is because Georgia will continue to be a competitive state.

“We were just named the number one state in the country to do business for the 10th year in a row,” he said. “That’s going to continue to grow the economy. and what’s going to be the common denominator for any one of those businesses? They need a talented workforce. They’re gonna need people who can work here, so as that growth happens, I think Dalton State is positioned to support it in a meaningful way because that is our focus.”

Fuchko said he believes the long-term effects of the cliff in this area will be less burdensome than for others.

“Long-term, I’m actually pretty bullish about where we are and where we’re headed,” he said. “Now in the near-term, are there potential impacts from the demographic cliff? Absolutely. I think we deal with that by recognizing that when the pool is shrinking, you’ve got to get more of the pool participating. Right now, not every student graduating from high school goes to a four-year or two-year school, goes into the military or is necessarily economically and productively engaged.

“There’s a lot that have unfulfilled promise. I would argue that the best way that we can address it and the way I intend for us to address it is to increase the percentage of those students who are graduating (from high school) and are coming in by finding them that right pathway, whether that’s, again, directly to us or to Georgia Highlands or Georgia Northwestern. Georgia Match is a great statewide program that is helping with that. If we can simply improve the percentages of students who are doing that, then we solve that whole demographic cliff issue just with the students we’ve got.”